British Anzani A & B Stock & Alky Racing Engines

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The three following pictures is a vintage of one kind of wide clamping system Anzani had. I have no way of knowing whether it was newer or older but it was used as they stripped the original clamping threads in the aluminum castings, so they inserted a threaded brass tube/pipe and rethreaded that to use a Mercs clampdown, handles and washers to do it all over again. This unit is a mixure of cast aluminum and brass that would make it heavier but not too significantly so.

Never the less, the way they build cockpits now and how they used to build some way back when was to fit the drivers width forward and then pull the cockpit in to make it narrow at the back to deal with the mounting space given the motor. Contemporary users of the Anzanis you have seen here earlier would indicated that the narrow mounting with wise of the clamping system was in heavy use and there were situations where the engine would shif loose from pounding and vibrating setting it at a dangerous angle with even one clamp coming off the transom causing some accidents,like I have an old picture somewhere showing Dick Pond having that problem with his Anzani (will find that soon enough for posting). These engines with their heavy duty crankshafts and cast iron loop block were also known for cracking the cast and machined engine mounting torque tube tower at the neck that broke the block loose from the pounding back and forth it took. Some later owner/drivers even reversed the engine mountint to put less loading over the transom putting the cast iron loop block cylinders facing the drivers butt and putting the carb on the right side of the raceboat mount making the block a natural spray shield. Pipes were re-configured and mounted to match the reversal that look some of the strain of the neck to block mount cutting down on the cracking. Some owner drivers did find that the only thing left holding the entire engine to the boat was by its steering bar and ropes with the most recent happening in UK (England) to whom I sent a new tower/tube to replace his broken one as welding proved itself not too reliable leaving the tube okay for displays but that is all. In Roger Wendt's case of his hybrid Anzani they used a fabricated steel tube, Mercury saddle, co-pilot brake and clamps but went to a Konig gearcase to deal with that issue. I have such a cracked tube here, there is now way but for displays after welding for that one.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

You may very well be right about that one as I was relying on an advertisement for the British Anzani engines from Bill Tenney that showed a 2 carb version (Vacturi and Tillotson HL) pictured shadowed into the advertisementment. That is the problem from renovating here as thinks are put away that will be posted. It could very well that Bill Tenney those accomplishments by the other driver in advertising his own business. I sure stand to be corrected as that advert is all I got and I was doing this more from memory. My understanding was the advert and accomplishment were 1981 but it would not surprise me if if was earlier in the 1970s. I have a VHS tape showing Bill Tenney walking around and talking about the Anzani in the pictures as being the made up version with Merc CD ignition and all as being what broke records along with motion pictures showing the driver on good runs as well as those that lifted real bad requiring correction before it blew over and that was the supposed 106-107 mile per hour runs. That may very well be the driver and runs you mention in your post. It will become quite clear as we assemble more for this thread.

Its all quite amazing considering the hulls, props, carbs and pipe technologies of the timess could have, probably did limit the runs. That is why its concievable that that engine equipped in these contemporary times technologies could do something yet to raise that ever higher to where modern made 350s of other makes would be giving their heads a shake at what these old castiron blocked loopers would do. Far ahead of their times they were.

When I was a early teen I remember watching Anzanis line up for singular test runs down the middle of the river through the race course going so fast it was making drivers with big engines, Konigs, Flatheads and padded block deflectors, stop, watch and give their heads a shake, reverting to doing what they were before the started watching that run. I remember Dave Berg's one run in particular that really showed the speed and power of his Anzani. Half the run was watching them start and heave ho throwing them forward as they started up reving to the roof so fast, people looked worrried because they might blow up and hurt some one.

Those were sure the times! Having a Merc KG9 on a DSH-hydro was not so bad watching those things go bizzare nutz!

[Mark75H]

a Japanese team working for Fuji (one of the companies that built engines for the gambling races, and which might have been absorbed by World Outboard/Yamato)

Correct! Fuji made the motors that became the Yamato alky motors. They looked almost identical to Konig 4 carb piston port motors.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I can remember an old Road and Track magazine where they were mkaing fun of a proposed Japanese car in Formula 1! Bamboo suspension and rice paper covering and all, a real spoof! Look at they now at Indy and in F-1 - Honda's & Toyotas and then Ferraris! My how times change. Many things you see from Japan were thought of elsewhere and at times they even paid for just that because for some reason sociologists and the such like might know they, the Japanese people think different. Some say more linear, more task oriented but not inventive. They are the greatest copiers and simulators, so they look at a Konig 4 banger and they build the Yamato 350 and 500s and other piston porters that go like blazes. Then they get here into North America or into Europe and before you know it they have disk rotary valves mounted on them too just like a Konig and go ever faster. I remember Carl's Laverenz's Yamato 500. Five carbs!! One for each piston port and one more for some kind of rotary valve and what a wild engine that made! And it started easy and took off! The Japanese are good at what they do because they work hard and with discipline at what they do. I had Japanese Karate instructors, they sounded like Yoda!! There is no try! There is only DO!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Its a strange crankshaft center section - NOS (New Old Stock) just like its counterpart was still covered with storage grease but still 100 percent Anzani! I looked at these two new ones and they "are heavy" and cleaned off the rotary valve centermain section of the crankshaft where the top and bottom big end tapered pins plug in and I really don't know which one is newer or older but one has the rotary valve tunnel machined in and the other doesn't.

That makes the one version without the rotary valve tunnel a pure piston port Anzani! But why when we already know rotary valves works well to help transfer air/fuel effectively to the crankcase with the piston ports, its modern day use? Did some one also play with some reed valves in addition to the piston ports without using a rotary valve? Was this part a precursor engine to the rotary valved engine that showed itself later as the most successful later design with the rotary valve in? I have only the one and I know its not Harrison via measurement and its use of the Anzani big end tapered pins.

If anyone can shed some light on this unique crankshaft center section without the rotary valve put in, please do.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

These following pictures are of the last series of Anzani 15 cubic inch (250 CC) in cast iron. Previous series already pictures in posts had the real wide rectangular exhausts that Bill Tenney developed trimable blocking plugs for the left and right side of the old rectangular port to keep the exhaust gases from expanding, other than changing the exhaust shape in area from square to round when it hit the external pipe elbo and continued on the the choosen megaphone flare thereafter to give that wacky sound!

With this new style "A" block, no more exhaust port/outlet in the block, blocking plugs. It was round into the pipe elbo right away though still bridged in half to support the piston rings better. Some say for future exhaust systems, others saying natural evolution as exhausts are based on round and not square pipe systems.

What ever the thinking Harrison (Birmingham Metal Products) had cast aluminum elbos with flages that you could drill and fit the round exhaust outlet fit to the Anzani right way.

Similarly their HRP aluminum megaphone castings worked hand in glove with the Anzani as well as their own Harrisons to make for a very light weight system that allowed Anzani owners to spring mount them to float on the connection and high tension springs doing away with "strutting or supporting" the Anzani stacks as they had been. This was a great improvement to the cast iron and steel everything else overhanging from rear that already needed supports running to the front of the crankcase with the resulting crankcase to tower necks cracking, requiring replacement.

Harrison's HRP aluminum stacks came in some differenet lengths and tapers too be custom cut and fitted to the Anzani engines owner's/driver's experiences coupled to the style/length of course they were running to optimize performance through easy pipes changes now made available. (See BRF's section on the Harrision Racing Outboards) Some earlier Anzani Alky engines are seen in pictures as being silver colored earlier on and without the pipe strut supports.

Back to the block. The block featured here has been completely readied in all manner for its final cast iron operations being the actual porting of the intake and exhaust ports and then the bore only finished honed. Ports then closed over, water jacket plugs installed and she was ready shortly for engine installation.

Questions come up about why Anzani was a cast iron blocked loop engine, why not aluminum? A reader from the UK (England) commented to me that at one point all castings there were predominately "gutter iron" a cast iron of very good quality that was used for everything until aluminum came along and along with that were moulders and casters to made it almost an artform in terms of use and applications. Heavy? Yes. Durable? Yes. Heat Trasfer Qualities? Excellent. Casting Flaw Prone? No. No one there ever thought that theses cast iron beauties cast iron blocks could withstand the high nitromethane loads in methanol based racing fuels that would go on to set speed records for what some thought was "old technology" casting.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

final block view of this Anzani A castiron block.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I just got an amail from the UK where there is a 350 Anzani with a Amal Monobloc round slide carb also claiming the over 100 miles per hour speeds too but it did not fully explain that either. Your right about Bill not setting the record, that is my mistake, it was Bill Tenney promoting the engine that did these things and set those records. Like Bill Tenney who sold and worked the engine here in North America where others like Walin and others set records on them the ghist was that it was the brand of engine doing so, not the sellers and servicers thou what can you say about Hallum, Anderson, Walin and the Sutters. They were the known movers and shakers though not all those having and using those crazy engines in competitions. In conclusion, even the engine in the UK Marine Museum makes the claim but it was geared to the engine brand and not the idividuals that accomplished those records themselves.

* I wished I had more on Harrison racing outboards for posting here as their close links to the Anzanis and their likewise performances were outstanding then and still a wonder now.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The following pictures have been re-aligned/copied from the "coolest engines of all time" to give more views of this enlarging thread covering the Brtiish Anzani engines. Feel free to add your own pictures and stories too, to really flesh out what was going on with these castiron blocked loop charged engines.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Another re-aligned and copied picture batch.